Shoot a deer?

Inspired by Jim Cummings’ presentation at the November 6th KSC Camera Club meeting, Barrie Thomas checked out the NCC Old Quarry Trail southeast of the intersection of Hazeldean and Eagleson (map).

Here are some notes he sent us:

Eve and I decided to get up really early one morning and try it out. Well, we could have kicked ourselves for having such an excellent wildlife area right in the middle of Kanata. We have been back five or six times since looking for a buck as we found a number of does, along with wild turkeys. If there are does, then somewhere there is a buck. Although during rutting season, it may not be a great idea to get too close.

We got rather lucky as we were trailing this buck off the main trail through the bush, and had given up hope of finding him again when I came past this big bush and looked left, and there he was, 20 feet away from me! I said “oh my God”, brought the camera up very quickly and snapped of a couple of quick shots to ensure I got something before he bolted. I always do this and don’t worry about settings until I have taken those first couple of shots. In this instance, he just stood there and posed for us.

Having a slow 80-400 zoom in this environment does not help as I had set it up with a high ISO of about 2000 and compensation exposure of about 3. Shooting with a lens this long into the woods requires those settings, but this guy was out into an open spot in the woods; therefore the images below are not smooth but have some pixelation in them. Nevertheless, not bad shots.

and a note from Louise Robert: